


It's a Long, Long Way to Ba Sing Se

by Lavanya_Six



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dark, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 22:01:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18859966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavanya_Six/pseuds/Lavanya_Six
Summary: What if. . . Lu Ten hadn't died?





	It's a Long, Long Way to Ba Sing Se

**_(Gaoling, 98 ASC)_ **

Whenever guests visited their family estate, Toph rarely left her bedroom. Her parents claimed that they didn't want to frighten or exhaust her. Being handled was a daily constant, but the round-the-clock guards on her door when visitors were staying overnight meant she couldn't risk any nighttime excursions. With no Earth Rumble to watch or badgermoles to visit, Toph had few sources of entertainment. Making the walls of the guest bedrooms creak and groan hungrily in the night spooked the guests, and made Toph smile, but she could only indulge that game so often before people might start asking tough questions.

On the rare occasion her parents admitted she existed, Toph was fancied up and presented as the perfect little Earth Kingdom porcelain doll: to be seen, not heard. Toph wasn't sure which state of affairs was worse. At least confined to her bedroom she could lick the soup bowls if she ever wanted to (and she always did).

Tonight, no bowls would be licked.

This dinner was apparently a 'momentous occasion', according to her mother's feverish whispers. Toph wasn't sure about that either, though it was pretty hilarious listening to terrible table manners of the boy sitting across from her. Toph knew you could slurp up soup, but barbecued boar-q-pine haunches? The adults tried valiantly to ignore him. There were two other children there, both girls a little older than Toph, but they were no fun. The boy's sister was aghast at his behavior, none-too-subtlely kicking him under the table every time he gave offensive. The foreign princess sitting at Toph's side, meanwhile, was a model of nobility. Even her giggles were dainty. Toph despised her immensely.

After an unbearably stuffy main course, Toph mimed a fainting spell when her mother was introducing her to some Grand Secretariat guy. Rather than go back to her bedroom, Toph went for some air in the garden. She was still earthbending obscene images into the buried foundation of the outer wall when she first heard the splashing. It was coming from the turtleduck pond. Which didn't make sense, because her father had rid the pond of turtleducks years ago, lest one bite Toph.

Was someone... _playing_ in the turtleduck pond?

Toph HAD to get in on that action.

Approaching them from downwind proved to be a mild mistake. Without the overwhelming scents of cooked food and incense filling the air, Toph could finally tell how much the other kids stunk. It wasn't being unwashed or dirty. Toph knew those smells from exploring Gaoling. No, this was... not aromatic, no, but oddly spicy. Toph couldn't put a name to the kinda-meaty-sorta-armpit-ish smokey flavor. It was just... foreign. Which made sense, them being Water Tribe and all.

"Watch!" shouted one of the girls. "Gran Pakku taught me this before we left!"

Toph felt the shifting form of the one girl's footsteps as she moved through her dance, ankle-deep in the turtleduck pond. She sensed the mud beneath the pond groan as the water's weight shifted, but none of the Water Tribe kids were positioned to be splashing up so much water. And they sure as heck weren't earthbending rocks into the pond.

Unless...

Was that girl bending the water?

Weird.

And possibly cool.

"Hey, look!" said the sloppy eater, finally noticing Toph's approach. He crept over to her, then kneeled down. "Hell-o. My-name-is-Sok-ka. Frieeeeend?"

Toph couldn't help but snarl. "I'm blind, not stupid."

_"Urk-!"_

"Ignore my brother," said the waterbender. "He's an idiot. I'm Katara. You're Lady Toph, right?"

"Hi."

"Lady Bei Fong," cooed Princess Prissy Pants, offering a bow as smooth as her correction of the other Water Tribal girl. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Yeah whatever." Toph fixated on Katara. "So you're a waterbender? That's cool. I'm an earthbender."

"An earthbender!" exclaimed a new voice. "Why, what a coincidence, so am I!"

The princess bowed, and the two other kids sketched shallow imitations of the gesture. Toph didn't bother. Blind noblewoman could be forgiven for all sorts of 'stupid' slip-ups.

"King Bumi," said the Water Tribe princess, "we were just enjoying the fresh air."

The old fart snorted. "Better than the hot air inside." Sok-ka laughed. "Wish I could play in the turtleduck pond, but your fathers and the rest of us old folks will be hammering out the treaty all night. So it'd be better for you kids to find something fun to do. I understand Gaoling hosts these 'Earth Rumble' thingies."

Toph's left ear twitched. "Oh," she said, trying very hard to be casual, "I think I've heard of those. Never been though."

King Bumi took out a small bag that unmistakably clinked. "First time for everything. Tickets are on Ol' Bumi."

"Ooo!" said Sok-ka, holding out his hands.

He tossed it to Toph instead, who probably should have faked not being able to catch it but, hey, this was a 'momentous occasion,' after all. "You look responsible, my dear. Bring me back something from the Rumble." She heard Bumi's tongue slather around his lips. "Candy floss sounds delicious. I'd go myself but somebody has to keep an eye on that Long Feng fellow, make sure he doesn't pocket any of the cutlery."

Using her fingertips, Toph counted the coins through the bag's fabric. Oh, they'd totally be gorging on the best junk food the Rumble's vendors had to offer. "What is everyone doing in there anyways? My parents wouldn't tell me."

"Oh, you know." Bumi shrugged. "Boring adult stuff."

 

*

 

_To the peoples of the Fire Nation:_

_And their most august leader, Fire Lord Iroh:_

_For almost a century the Northern Water Tribe, wanting only life and happiness for its people, has resolutely resisted the Fire Nation's wanton acts of aggression. We are a peace-loving nation and wish only to pursue our own national destiny free from outside entanglements._

_Unfortunately the Fire Nation's appetite for death and destruction has proved unending. After the extermination of the pacifistic Air Nomads, the Fire Nation set a national policy of global domination and subjection of the free and independent peoples of the world. From the illegal colonization of Earth Kingdom lands, to the waterbender genocide among our cousins in the Southern Water Tribe, to the ongoing Rape of Ba Sing Se, the Fire Nation has shown no signs of contrition for its actions, only more aggression._

_The horrors committed by Fire Nation at Ba Sing Se lay bare her insatiable ambitions and has created a situation that no nation appreciable of human decency can tolerate. The Northern Water Tribe hereby formally declares war on the Fire Nation. We further declare that all treaties, conventions, agreements, and contracts regarding relations between the Northern Water Tribe and the Fire Nation are and remain null and void._

_Being convinced that victory over our common enemy is essential to defending basic goodness and Balance in our own lands as well as in other lands, the Northern Water Tribe further declares that it, along with the United Earth Kingdom Confederation and the Southern Water Tribe, will abide by the terms of Gaoling Pact. We have pledged (1) full international military and economic cooperation with fellow Pact members and (2) to not make a separate armistice or peace with the Fire Nation._

_Together, like the Avatars of old, the membership of the Gaoling Pact will fight to restore goodness and Balance to the world. Our combined armies and navies will resist further aggression by the Fire Nation until the last firebender has been driven from our sovereign territories._

_May the Spirits of the Ocean and Moon be with us on this great endeavor!_

_-Supreme Chieftain Arnook_

 

*

 

**Governor's Mansion, Agricultural Ring**

**Day 1553 of the Siege of Ba Sing Se**

Crown Prince Lu Ten dropped the message down onto his study desk. In the office's low lamplight, the war declaration's dark royal seal gleamed like fresh blood.

"Fuck," he breathed under his breath.

To his side, Captain Jee held up another scroll. This one, unlike Arnook's letter, wasn't made of a parchment cut from some bizarre arctic animal's skin. Its paper was premium Earth Kingdom stock; exactly the same grain as found in royal dispatches from the Earth King's desk. "This one has the formal joint declaration of alliance between the three major parties, as well as the various regional kings and warlords pledging their loyalty to Kuei."

Lu Ten waved away the offering. "I already know what it's going to say." Not that it'd stop him from reading it later, once he had collected himself. Lu Ten squeezed the bridge of his nose, mind racing to work out all the implications for this development. "Who's representing the Southern Water Tribe?"

Jee unrolled the scroll. "...Chief Hakoda. No other superlatives, surprisingly. Kuei's just go on and on."

"Hakoda. Never heard of him." Not that it mattered. The southern hemisphere's Water Tribe had been neutered decades ago. The Northern Water Tribe going on the offensive was going to be the real problem. If the Earth Kingdom could sink to such depravities as mindbending prisoners of war and suicide bombing colonial villages, what savageries could the unenlightened Water Tribals accomplish? _Well, the Navy wanted in on the action._

"Apparently they're calling themselves the Gaoling Pact. It's where the alliance treaty was negotiated."

Lu Ten vaguely recalled that city's name. Southern Earth Kingdom highland merchant hub, hadn't it been? Pretty far for the Northern Water Tribe to go, but there had been rumors about them re-connecting with their southern counterparts. "The Fire Lord will have Secretary Nariaki's head." Because if the Ministry of Intelligence had missed or ignored warning signs about a grand alliance, then Lu Ten would have had Nariaki drawn and quartered if he'd been Fire Lord.

"They know about the comet," Lu Ten continued. "They're must think we're going to do to them what my great-grandfather did to the airbenders, so they figure they have nothing to lose by taking us on now."

Jee chuckled mirthlessly. "'Going to do'?"

"An ongoing siege is hardly genocide." 

"Of course," the older officer said smoothy. "My apologies, Prince Lu Ten. I didn't mean to imply anything of the sort."

"Good night, Jee." He dismissed the captain. His impertinence was often useful, if only to avoid surrounding himself with Yes Men, and Father trusted him. Not that getting rid of him was an option. Even the Crown Prince could make a career limiting move if he offended the Fire Lord.

When he was alone in his expansive office, Lu Ten poured himself a drink and then wandered out onto his balcony. He so rarely was allowed to enjoy the view - he kept his desk out of sight to avoid inviting rebel archers sniping him - but tonight he needed remind of their great mission.

The fertile lands of the Agricultural Zone stretch 'round the mansion where his army made its headquarters. On the horizon, its stonework lambent with orange-yellow firelight, was the Inner Wall of Ba Sing Se. Great banners proclaiming the Fire Nation's conquest of this section of the sub-divided Lower Ring hung for all to see.

Two and half years after breaching the Outer Wall, slogging through the booby-trapped killing fields of the Agricultural Zone, and blasting through the Inner Wall, the Fire Nation still only controlled forty percent of the city. The Earth Army had raised up new walls inside Ba Sing Se, made them tall and thick. Breaking into each sub-division of the Lower Ring was like busting through the Inner Wall all over again, and securing each zone involved horrific house-to-house fighting. There was no wood left in Ba Sing Se to burn. The natives had scrounged it all up for fuel during the long winter stalemates. Still, the Lower Ring was nearly theirs with only a few stubborn holdouts remaining. It was only a matter of time before they secured a foothold in the Middle Ring.

Yet despite the gains, it wasn't enough.

Vast sections of the Agricultural Zone were unsafe to wander after curfew. Even with his newly secured reinforcements from the Home Guard, there simply weren't enough troops to hold down the rebels and their Dai Li minders. There was never enough of anything. The Fire Nation had conquered half the world, and Ba Sing Se was soaking up every scrape of steel, treasure, and manpower they had to spare. And now the Fire Nation was looking at a half-dozen new fronts opening up.

Lu Ten sipped his drink, letting the liquor burn down his throat and warm his stomach. It did nothing to drown the fresh surge of hatred for his prideful enemy. There was no need for all this death and destruction! If only the Earth Kingdom had just surrendered years ago — like they were supposed to — all this suffering could have been avoided. Didn't they understand the Fire Nation wanted Ba Sing Se intact?

The wealth of Ba Sing Se was in the combination of its people and its vast fertile fields. People ate in Ba Sing Se... or at least they had. Carefully tended farmland, meticulous records of food stores, kept the city fed even through years of drought; rationing by an invisible hand, one coated in a stone glove. Lu Ten had read the intelligence estimates, the carefully calculated figures based on refugee patterns, population growth projections, and pre-war census figures stolen before the city's walls became Walls. There are - were - over three million pairs of hands residing in the Inner and Middle Rings alone. Army Intelligence put the figure left alive in the hostile sub-sectors at nearly eight hundred thousand. While the rest of the world had burned, Ba Sing Se had rolled on as if Sozin and Roku were still embroiled in their standoff.

When the Fire Nation finally put Ba Sing Se under the yoke, Lu Ten knew they'd have a workhouse and bread basket capable of supplying the whole of their global empire-to-be. It would be a privileged place to be, the most valuable asset in the whole empire. The potential in tax revenue alone was breathtaking. His father had even planned on leaving the original bureaucracy intact - self-rule by earthbenders was unheard of in the empire. Ba Sing Se had been given every incentive to surrender peacefully after the Outer Wall was breached.

But no.

Instead the Earth Kingdom had chosen to ignore the inevitable outcome of a protracted struggle, forcing Lu Ten's hand towards progressively harsher measures. If the people stopped resisting and consented to firebender rule like they had in the colonies, then there would be no need for the pacification camps or population transfers. But they couldn't get it through their thick, dirt-filled heads that if you brainwashed prisoners of war, if you made the Fire Army fight house-to-house, sector-by-sector, in a booby-trapped stone city that wouldn't burn _then there HAD to be consequences!_

The citizens of Ba Sing Se would rather suffer rice shortages and lice and Dai Li anti-cannibalism patrols then bathe in the warm light of civilization. And that irrationality was why the Fire Nation was destined to win.

Lu Ten raised his glass to the Fire Nation emblem adoring the far-off wall, toasting a better tomorrow.


End file.
